Ruth Marie Bain was born in 1919 in Normangee, Texas, the seventh of nine children. The family later moved to Centerville, Texas where she graduated from high school as class Valedictorian in 1936. She earned a bachelor of arts in Chemistry from the Texas State College for Women, now Texas Women's University, in 1939. She went on to attend the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston where she earned her degree as a medical doctor in 1942. Bain completed her internship at St. Louis Hospital in St. Louis, Missouri and her residency at Brackenridge Hospital. Her first job as a doctor was with the University of Texas Student Health Center from 1947-1950. In 1950, she went on to establish a private practice in Family Medicine in Austin.

Over the years, Dr. Bain has devoted much of her free time to a number professional and civic organizations. In 1957, she was honored as the Soroptimist International Club Outstanding Women of the Year. She served as secretary-treasurer of the Travis County Medical Society from 1958-1961 and then as its first women president from 1962-1963. In 1973, Bain was appointed Clinical Director of the Family Practice Residency Program in Austin. This led to an appointment as Clinical Assistant Professor at the UT Health Sciences Center in San Antonio in 1978. In 1975, she was voted one of five Outstanding Women of the Year by the Austin American-Statesman. Other civic activiities include Past President of the Austin Zonta Club, as well as a board member of the YMCA, the Austin Council for Retarded Children, the Central Texas Comprehensive Health Planning Commission and the Human Opportunities Corporation.

More recently, Dr. Bain has been a member of the Texas Academy of Family Physicians, on the Board of Directors for the Texas Medical Foundation as well as the Travis County Medical Society Foundation, a member of the State Board of Medical Examiners, and served as a Medical Discipline and Alternate Delegate to the American Medical Association from 1988-1992. She was president of the Texas Medical Association from 1982-1983. In September, 1990, Bain was elected to the Central Texas Women's Hall of Fame. In 1991, following double bypass surgery, she retired from private practice and has since scaled back on many of her organizational commitments. She is an avid golfer and has a private pilot's license.

Correspondence, certificates, printed material, speeches, notes, clippings and photographs document the professional and civic activities of Dr. Ruth Marie Bain, Austin family medicine physician for over forty years. The collection is arranged into five series. The first, Organizations, contains primarily correspondence related to either Bain's membership/board appointments or, as in the case of the Travis County Medical Society, various medical opinions held by the organization. The largest amount of material is contained in the second series, Honors and Awards. It contains a relatively large amount of congratulatory correspondence regarding several of Bain's many accomplishments as a leading female physician in the Austin community from the 1950s through the mid-1980s. Of special note within the third series, Correspondence, is a Christmas card and one inaugural invitation sent by President and Mrs. Ronald Reagan. Creative Works, the fourth series, is comprised of fourteen speeches and notes which fully document Dr. Bain's opinions and positions regarding the health care profession.

Doors Will Open For You: Memorable Experiences In My Life As A Doctor by
Bain, Ruth M., A 610.92 B166B

Assistance League of Austin interview with Dr. Ruth Bain, March 30, 1983,
A 610.924 B16B

A study of the health care of the poor in Austin and Travis County : presented by the Medical, Dental and Public Health Committee of the Human Opportunities Corporation of Austin and Travis County to the Human Opportunities Corporation Board of Directors by P.C. Price ; Ruth Bain, A 362.1 ST